We don’t feel the need to. We do it because we want to.

Sk

Minnesota politics 1930-1940 was really quite a positive story. The Farmer-Labor Party during that period was run by populist soc1411ists. They were as successful as any American left group has ever been, and their heritage is almost entirely positive (except to right-libertarian scum like the Powerline shits).

BUT what Minnesota had achieved was a united right-left populist-extremist popular front, united against the Republicans (the Democrats almost disappeared—they’d always been weak in Minnesota because Minnesota was founded by Union civil War veterans.)

In 1936 the only Congressman voting to support the Spanish Republican cause was John Bernard of the Duluth area, who later admitted to being a Communist. But in 1940 FL Senator Lundeen was implicated in Nazi propaganda efforts (dying mysteriously in a plane crash.)

This was a very big tent, and when you consider that small-town bankers were important early FL supporters, you have to wonder whether it wasn’t the biggest tent EVER.

Many FL supporters were first or second-generation Scandinavian or German immigrants (though Bernard was a Corsican, of all things.) The geographical isolation of the Midwest during the early XXc was also a factor—people were aware that their lives were decided by events taking place very far away, something which induces paranoia.

I still think that people around here are more willing than elsewhere to make their political commitments based on their own thinking, rather than by triangulating public opinion or deciding which kingpin will be able to deliver them the goods. People who do their own thinking tend to be erratic.

So anyway, moderation is the titration of extremes. I really think that Hofstadter’s version of populism was all wrong.

NOTE: Y’all really have to tweak your stupid spam filter. It should be possible to use the word soc1411sm here, of all places.

Minnesota politics 1930-1940 was really quite a positive story. The Farmer-Labor Party during that period was run by populist socialists. They were as successful as any American left group has ever been, and their heritage is almost entirely positive (except to right-libertarian scum like the Powerline shits).

BUT what Minnesota had achieved was a united right-left populist-extremist popular front, united against the Republicans (the Democrats almost disappeared—they’d always been weak in Minnesota because Minnesota was founded by Union civil War veterans.)

In 1936 the only Congressman voting to support the Spanish Republican cause was John Bernard of the Duluth area, who later admitted to being a Communist. But in 1942 FL Senator Lundeen was implicated in Nazi propaganda efforts.

This is a very big tent, and when you consider that small-town bankers were important early FL supporters, you have to wonder whether it wasn’t the biggest tent EVER.

Many FL supporters were first or second-generation Scandinavian or German immigrants (though Bernard was a Corsican, of all things.) The geographical isolation of the Midwest during the early XXc was also a factor—people were aware that their lives were decided by events taking place very far away.

I still think that people around here are more willing than elsewhere to make their political commitments based on their own thinking, rather than by triangulating public opinion or deciding which kingpin will be able to deliver them the goods. People who do their own thinking tend to be erratic.

So anyway, moderation is the titraton of extremes.

Obviously, this isn’t much better—to suggest that you’re on the road to Lindbergh isn’t quite as bad as saying you’re Lindbergh, but it’s still bad.

He was in exile in Canada in Harris’s Fatherland, tho it’s just an offhand mention.

C’s alcoholism seems to be greatly exaggerated; he mixed a good bit of water with his scotch, and ate more than enough to help soak up the spirits.

It works every time….and it works to this day.

You’ll be doing no more bloggingheads, then, Henry?

Possibly because of his America First activity?

In other words, the Republicans are not preparing the Dolchstoss, but are preparing the political ground for the next war.